Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to the Centre not to impede the Aam Aadmi Party government’s new ration scheme for delivering foodgrains at doorstep, saying he was willing to forgo all political credit for it.
Kejriwal clarified that the scheme will not be recognised as a flagship initiative of the Delhi government in any manner. In order to ensure that, the chief minister said he had decided not to name it, but to go with the existing nomenclature instead.
The Delhi government was scheduled to launch a scheme, named Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana, on March 25. Under the scheme, the government had planned to provide packaged wheat flour, rice and sugar at the doorstep of beneficiaries of the ration system.
But the Centre on Friday wrote to the government saying that it was not allowed to use foodgrains allotted under the National Food Security Act for its flagship initiative. In a notification issued by the Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ministry, the Centre said that the foodgrains cannot be used for any state-specific schemes under a different name, other than the NFSA.
At a press briefing on Saturday, Kejriwal said that he was disheartened with the central government’s objection. “In a letter to us, the Centre told us that people will think this is the state government’s scheme,” Kejriwal said. “But we are not doing this to take any credit. The Centre can take credit, we will take responsibility.”
“I want to clarify to the central government that we will not introduce any Delhi government scheme for this,” the chief minister added. “We will not call it by any name – like Mukhyamantri Yojana or something else – we will not do nothing like that. Because we don’t want any credit for it.”
The chief minister said his sole aim was to rid Delhi from the throes of “Ration mafias” operating in the city who were stealing food grains from the poor by forging their signatures . “And for that we are willing to do whatever the central government says,” he added.
Also read:
Centre blocks Delhi government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme, AAP calls decision ‘anti-people’
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